Preserving History, One Project at a Time

Electronics repair, vintage radio restoration, audio amplifier builds, DIY electronics projects, Arduino experiments, and hands-on troubleshooting.

 

Welcome to Electronics Old & New — a hands-on space for electronics repair, restoration, and DIY projects. As an electronics engineer who returned to the field for the sheer enjoyment of it, I spend my time bringing vintage radios back to life and experimenting with a wide range of audio and electronic builds.

You’ll find everything from tube radio restoration and vintage transistor radio repair to guitar amps, effects pedals, audio amplifiers, speaker builds, and Arduino-based projects. Most of it revolves around audio electronics, troubleshooting real-world faults, and understanding how things actually work—though I’m always happy to follow a project wherever it leads.

This website supports the Electronics Old & New YouTube channel, where these projects are documented through detailed videos and multi-part restoration series. Here, you’ll also find extra notes, technical insights, and behind-the-scenes details that don’t always make it into the videos—along with original design projects, successful or otherwise.

If you’re into vintage electronics, practical repair work, and learning by doing, you’ll feel right at home here.

Learning, Sharing, and Giving Back

What I do here is built on the knowledge generously shared by others—especially the many skilled restorers on YouTube who document their work and make it available to anyone willing to learn. This site and the videos on the channel are my way of giving something back: creating a growing resource that others can draw from, just as I did.

 

The goal is to encourage hands-on learning and independent thinking. The projects show the process as it really unfolds—mistakes, challenges, and all—so that anyone interested can build their own understanding, develop their skills, and gain the confidence to tackle restorations themselves.

What I Work On

I tend to take on a wide variety of projects, though tube radios make up the bulk of the work. Most of the sets I restore are European—often German—from the 1950s and 60s, largely because they’re the easiest for me to source. I also like these radios to be used and enjoyed, so having a working FM band is almost always a requirement for me.

Bringing Bluetooth to Vintage Radio

I’ve also developed a real appreciation for adding Bluetooth to these sets. Many of these radios—especially the better European models—have excellent audio stages and speaker systems, so they’re more than capable of delivering great sound with modern sources. Integrating Bluetooth gives them a new lease on life, making them far more likely to be used day-to-day, particularly by a younger audience.

 

To make this process cleaner and more consistent, I’ve developed a dedicated Bluetooth board specifically for these kinds of radios. It allows for a tidy, reversible installation while preserving the original functionality, so the set remains true to its design but gains a very practical modern upgrade.

Do I Sell My Radios?

I’m often asked if I sell the radios I restore. In general, I don’t—mainly because shipping from Madeira tends to be expensive, risky, and more trouble than it’s worth, both in terms of cost and the potential for damage in transit.

That said, there have been a few exceptions. Occasionally, someone expresses a genuine appreciation for a particular set, and in those cases I’ve been happy to let it go to a good home. I’ve also taken on restoration work for others when the project itself is interesting to me, but again, the logistics of getting radios to and from the island always need to be considerred.

Email